Romania Ww1 Essay, Research Paper

World War I

Romania

World War I was said to be inevitable. For years there was controversy and quarrels between European countries. On June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo Gavrilo Princip, a young Serb belonging to the secret society of the Black Hand shot and assassinated Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. The killer was a Serbian. So Austria-Hungary decided to use the murder as an excuse to teach Serbia a lesson with help from its ally Germany. This was now the begging of World War I. Soon countries were forced to pick a side in which to side with.

Romania before World War I asserted its independence well and tried to expand its borders. A couple years before the war they had confrontations with Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece over land in the Balkan Wars. In doing so they got aid from the Ottomans. They won some areas such as Soslistra and other areas of Dibruja.

At the start of the war both the Central Powers and the Triple Entente tried to bribe Romania with sweet promises of land to join their side. Romania was unable to pick because of treaties signed before hand and declared a policy of armed neutrality until they could see an outcome of the war.

With the wait and see policy in effect an imaginable thing happened King Charles, of Romania died in October 1914. If it had not been for the war, Romanians would have grieved for the end of his forty eight-year reign, which brought Romania the most prosperous and peaceful period in their entire history. His successor Ferdinand continued the wait and see policy until they could predict the outcome of the war.

Romania s rival Bulgaria joined, the side of the Central Powers, and in unsision with Germany attacked Serbia. Allied promises of land and fear of Germany finally convinced Romania to join the side of the Allies. Romania hoped to gain provinces of Austria-Hungary that had large Romanian populations.

On August 27, 1916 Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary. Romania had a total of 750,000 men mobilized during the war. Romania was confident on the Allies side so they invaded Transylvania but ended up fleeting because of Bulgarian forces and lost many men.

Romania was then capitulated to Central Powers by the Treaty of Bucharest which binded Romania to join the Central Powers on May 7, 1918. This did not last long because King Ferdinand appointed a new government that repealed all laws enacted under the Marghiloman s administration. On November 8, 1918 Romania declared war on Germany and re-entered the war on the allies side on November 10, 1918. The Allies soon won the war and Romania was soon to receive its land that was promised to them.

During the peace conference on January 18, 1919 Romania discussed the land that was soon to be owned. The Allies promised Romania the Banat, a fertile agricultural region bounded by the Tisza , Mures, and Danube rivers and other land such as the Crisana-Maramures region from Hungary, Bukovina from Austria, and Bessarabia from Russia.

In the end a total 333,706 men died out of a total of 750,000 from the war. Weather the deaths were worth it; Romania emerged from the war having almost doubled its area and population.